Barrington High School baseball coach Vin Scandura said his season got off to slow start, as some members of the team missed time in quarantine and others were still finishing up their football season.

“I’m four or five practices behind,” Coach Scandura said during an interview last week.

The delayed start did not stop the Eagles from scratching out two wins over Prout School to start the season. Barrington benefitted from some great pitching against the Crusaders — George Promades and Bennett Durkin pitched well in the Eagles’ season-opening win over Prout, while Andy Fletcher and Ned Shapiro shared time on the mound in the second game.

“The pitchers have been fantastic,” Coach Scandura said, adding that Jack Kriz has done a stellar job behind the plate for Eagles. 

Kriz’s catching has been a bright spot for the Barrington defense, which stumbled through eight errors in the first two games, and gave up eight unearned runs. Coach Scandura said the Eagles’ 2-0 mark was a bit deceiving, as he believed the team has plenty of room for improvement. 

“It’s still a work in progress,” he said. 

In fact, since opening the season with two wins, Barrington dropped a tough 2-0 loss to Mt. Hope on Thursday, May 13, and then fell to Westerly 10-4 on Saturday. 

Coach Scandura shared praise for a number of his players, including Aaron Brady, Harry Turner and JC Neimeyer. He also said he planned to bring up some of the program’s younger players to help shore up the defense. 

Win over Westerly

Barrington bounced back after two-game skid with 11-8 win over Westerly on Tuesday, May 18.

The Eagles trailed 6-2 after giving up a grand slam in the fifth inning, but scored nine runs in the top of the sixth. The Eagles capitalized on Westerly miscues and some timely hitting. Noah Mincone cracked two singles and drove in two runs during the inning. Bennett Durkin also had a hit for Barrington.

Westerly scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 11-8 and threatened to score more, but the Eagles managed a line-drive double-play to end the inning.

Barrington improved to 3-2 with the win.

Westerly had been undefeated prior to Tuesday’s game.